Standish Read online

  He took another sip of the drink. “Sounds even more dangerous.” He put his cup down. “So, what happens now?” He asked.

  Standish flipped through several screens on the data-pad. “I need to go back into Port Sunlight to sit some tests and a physical examination. Once those are finished, I wait for a basic training slot to open.”

  “Where is that?”

  “The basic course?”

  “Yes.”

  “For me, the closest one is on Bern 36.” She said.

  “What?” Her father’s eyes went wide with shock. “That’s.” He couldn’t finish his sentence. The idea of having his daughter leave was one thing, but to travel so far was something entirely different.

  “I know father.”

  Standish’s parents had always kept a map of their quadrant in the Empire on the wall of the living room to educate the three children about the worlds and systems that spanned the Empire. Her father knew that Bern 36 was roughly five hundred light-years away. The most expensive piece of his farm equipment was made there.

  “You do know that I can be assigned anywhere inside the Empire, right?”

  The father nodded in silence. It was a thought that he was trying to keep suppressed.

  “Where is the training after that?” He asked.

  Standish rechecked the data-pad and found the page for the Rescue Tech training course. “Tekori.” She said with a hint of excitement in her voice.

  “The Core?” Her father asked, a smile on his face. “If my little girl makes it to the Core, I’d be most proud.”

  “I know father.”

  Five weeks later, when the day for her departure finally arrived, Standish started the day with a hearty meal with her father and her two brothers. They all knew that this would be the last time they saw Standish for some time. No one in the family had ever been off Nadolo Prime before, but they all knew that journeys off-world could be perilous. The fear was driven more by the unfamiliarity with off-world travel than fact.

  While at training, Standish intended to send most of her pay back home, she didn’t anticipate a need for it where she was going, and she knew that her family could always use the extra funds. Her father was looking to replace and upgrade some of his farming equipment, and Standish knew that her time in the service would improve not only her own standard of living but also that of her family.

  The trip into Port Sunlight was made in near silence. No one spoke as the old traveller rambled its way to the capital. They arrived with enough time to have a farewell drink at her father’s favourite spot in town.

  After the drink, Standish’s father walked her towards the centre of town where a fleet dropship was expected just past mid-day. Saying goodbye to her older brothers wasn’t easy, and tears had been shed, but everyone knew that Standish was going to a brighter future, off the rather unimportant planet that they called home.

  A sonic-boom announced the arrival of the dropship. When it came into view, Standish could see that it was covered in full Imperial regalia and painted in light blue colours. This ship wasn’t part of the pithy Nadolo Prime defence forces or those from the local system; it was from the Imperial fleet. All training for the armed forces, whether those that serve in the Imperial fleets or those of the three regions of the Empire, the Pohjois, Etelainen or the Core all went through training conducted all Imperial managed facilities. It was the first time Standish or anyone else in her family had seen a ship with Imperial colours, and they were all shocked at how modern the vessel looked. It really was from another world.

  When the dust finally settled, and the rear hatch lowered, a tall, elegant-looking non-commissioned officer walked down the rear hatch with a data-pad in hand. He was quick to order the assembled candidates to line up.

  “Father.” Standish looked at the old man standing next to her, still holding his right hand in hers.

  “Make me proud, girl.” He said, his eyes starting to well up.

  Standish nodded. “I shall return.”

  He didn’t say anything. He bent forward and picked up the small bag that Standish had brought with her and handed it to her. “I know.”

  Standish looked down and took the bag from her father. She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, and before there was time for anything else to be said, she turned and dashed off towards the line of candidates at the rear of the ship.

  3

  The Present

  Mechcharga

  Standish’s quarters inside the Royal Palace were huge, and when she walked in following her conversation with the Princess, they felt empty. She had lived alone since she had arrived on Mechcharga. At her age, she thought herself too old for romances. There were very few things she enjoyed other than drinking, planning her retirement and mentoring younger officers.

  Walking over to the large desk that dominated her private office, Standish dropped the data-stick the Princess had given her on the surface and carried on into her bedroom. She quickly pulled off her fleet dress uniform and tossed it on a nearby sofa then slipped into a loose-fitting jump-suit, zipping up the front, before returning to her desk.

  Sitting herself down gently, she activated the data-stick and opened the single file it contained.

  It was a biography that had been prepared by one of the members of the Princess’s personal entourage, the ladies in waiting, six months earlier on a man who went by the name Nal Liboa. He had been supposedly selected by a committee of the entourage for his intelligence, charm, looks, and above all, suitability as a possible romantic partner for the Princess. The man was, in fact, a charlatan, a trickster, a confidence man. He only needed a few days on the grounds of the royal palace to take advantage of the Princess enough that her honour and reputation had been damaged, and one of her prized possessions stolen.

  Tapping a key on her desk, Standish ordered a whisky, a habit she had picked up from her father, which was delivered promptly by a service droid. Taking a sip from the luxurious liquor, Standish closed her eyes and leaned back into her chair and tried to relax. It had been a long day. Standish might have run the security for the Princess, but she was also an advisor to Dynamic Operations and a mentor to several young admirals who were continually asking her for recommendations and advice.

  Opening her blue eyes that were surrounded by wrinkle lines, she looked back at the file that was projected above the desk and leaned forward, taking a long sip from the glass before setting it down. Phase one, gather intelligence.

  4

  The Past

  Bern 36

  The trip from the landing field took just over twenty minutes, and when the recruits arrived in front of the barracks, they found a small team of smartly dressed training staff ready to guide each one to a particular spot on the ground until the three hundred new arrivals were in three blocks. There was no shouting, only instruction given in a normal tone.

  A light breeze ran across Standish’s face as she stood where she had been told, watching the rest of the recruits move into position. She was surrounded by members of the Empire from dozens of planets representing a myriad of different species. When all the recruits were placed correctly, then the intensity increased.

  “Welcome to Bern 36. I am Senior Instructor Marvex. You will be here for the next twelve months if you want to pass this course, and in that time, I will turn you into weapons for service in the Imperial Fleet. I do not have any bigotry here. Until you pass this course, you are nothing more than recruits. Prove that you have the skills and aptitude for learning what you are taught, and you will join the Imperial Fleet.”

  The shouting carried on for a half-hour as the recruits were called out by name, and reorganised into three different blocks, and somewhere along the way, Marvex discovered that Standish wanted to attend Rescue Technician training, and that got his attention.

  “Excuse me?” Marvex was much taller than Standish. He was a native to Bern 36 and like the rest of his species, covered in red skin that tended to shift in shade with his moo
d.

  “Rescue Technician!” Standish responded with as much force as she could muster.

  The instructor let out a laugh, then looked down the row of recruits. “Anyone else here stupid enough to volunteer for Rescue Tech?” Silence followed his question.

  “Top.” It was one of the junior instructors. “She’s it.” The instructor was looking down at a datapad. “Yeah. Just her. Val Standish.”

  Marvex looked back down at Standish, then pointed to a symbol on the front of his uniform. “Do you see this, girl?”

  Standish remained still. The recruits had been told to keep their head and eyes to the front and all times.

  “Look at it.” The instructor repeated.

  Letting out a breath, Standish let her eyes dart up to meet the instructors, then down to his chest and where his finger was pointing. The instructor's finger was leading to a small silver coloured pin in the shape of an old-fashioned space helmet.

  “Do you know what this is?” The instructor asked.

  “No, Sir!”

  “That’s because you are fucking worthless! You are the lowest form of life form in the universe!” The instructor shook his head. “How dare you think you’ve got what it takes to serve in my branch?”

  The instructor dropped his finger back down, then bent forward until he was on eye-level with Standish, her face covered in sweat. “That’s a Master Rescue Tech badge, and you’re a long fucking way from earning it.” The tall red alien looked down at the badge, then back to Standish, before righting himself. Taking a step back, the instructor looked down the long line of fresh recruits, then to the two other rows behind the first. “Instructor Vexer.”

  The instructor with the data-pad walked over. “Senior?” Vexer was Sabirian, with skin as dark as a pitch-black sky and piercing red eyes.

  “Take the rest of the recruits to their accommodation.” The senior instructor ordered. “I’m going to see if this recruit is a viable candidate for Rescue Tech.”

  Two hours later, when Standish reached the front door of the building, the senior instructor looked down at her and shook his head. “Go find your bunk. It’s inside.”

  After some searching, Standish finally got to her bed. Everyone else in the bay was already asleep. Her arms and legs were numb. She had trained hard before leaving for Bern 36, but it hadn’t prepared her for the two hours of physical training Marvex had put her through. It seemed that Senior Instructor Marvax had a particular eye for Standish. Without bothering to undress, Standish lay down in her bunk and fell into a deep sleep.

  When the lights kicked on, a single droid rolled into the giant bay that was on the top floor of the barracks, and Standish’s new home for twelve months “Fitness test in 30. Rear of the building.” The droid repeated the message a few times as it moved down the length of the open bay that was starting to come to life with the movement of young recruits who had been roused from their slumbers.

  Standish blinked a few times and looked up at the underside of the bunk above her.

  “Fuck.”

  It had taken her time to search the lower two floors of the barracks the previous evening for her bunk. She knew there was one bunk per recruit, so when she found the vacant berth on the top level, she quickly emptied her kit into the storage area under the bed, then fell asleep, still dressed in her primary issue overalls that she had received back on Nadolo Prime.

  Pulling herself out of bed, Standish focused on changing as quickly as possible, pulling off her clothes, she quickly got into her issued sports-kit. The kit was designed to be worn as a base-layer in combat and was engineered to provide the highest level of comfort and support for the user and was already helping her tired and worn muscles recover.

  Getting changed, Standish finally laying eyes on her two bunkmates, giving them both a once over. The recruit from the top bunk was a very muscular creature with dark green skin. Standish wasn’t sure what species it was from, and quickly shifted her focus to the other recruit who was a fellow Nadolan whom she recognised from the recruitment session back at Port Sunlight.

  “Hey.” Standish said.

  “Hey.” Came the reply. “I think we should head outside.”

  It didn’t take long until it was time for Standish to take the fitness test. The first challenge of the basic course.

  Closing her eyes, Standish took her mind back to Nadolo Prime in an attempt to relax. The tan coloured deserts and flatlands that stretched as far as the eye could see had allowed her more room to run and play as a child than she could ever need. The harsh conditions, the wind, heat and the cold, had helped mould her into the resilient individual she was. In school, Standish had always joined in athletic competitions, and spurred on by challenges from her two brothers, she eventually became the fittest female in her district, always pushing herself to beat her brothers, regardless of the game. It was that competitive edge that helped her win so often.

  As the line for the fitness test shortened, Standish focused on her breathing while waiting. Soon enough, she was at the head of her queue. The door that all the recruits passed through to start the test, with its menacing grey paint and the seal of the Empire, was now just in front of her.

  When the hatch finally opened it revealed a blue-lit, ten-metre-deep corridor with blue walls and flooring and ceiling. Leaning up against the right-side wall, just inside the hatch was Marvex, a data-pad in his hand.

  The instructor looked at Standish in a rather nonchalant manner as she stepped towards the doorway and across the threshold. “Let’s see if you have it.” Marvax said without looking away from the data-pad.

  Standish focused her attention on the door at the far end of the space and waited for it to open. She heard the door to her rear close with a whooshing sound, leaving her alone in the blue-lit room with the senior instructor. All the recruits had been told what to expect. Wait for the correct signal, then start the test, and advance through each station as quickly as possible.

  A low voice came over an invisible PA system warning Standish that her examination would commence in ten seconds.

  Taking a final glance at Marvax, Standish moved to the door and got down into a slightly crouched position, ready to spring forward to encounter whatever challenge lay ahead of her.

  “Three.”

  Standish tried to slow her breathing.

  “Two.”

  Slower.

  “One.”

  Standish was lying on her back, the wind knocked out of her. She couldn’t move her arms, and her chest felt like something was broken with it.

  “Medical droid to my location.”

  Standish could see Marvex out of the corner of her eye. He was standing on a raised platform overlooking the training lane. After he called the droid, he took his time making his way down to where Standish was lying. Squatting down next to her, he looked at her from head to toe.

  “That was a heavy impact you took.”

  Standish let her eyes drift towards the ledge she had leap for.

  “Broken sternum and collar bone.” He said. “That would be my estimation.

  Standish tried to swallow but found it challenging.

  “Looks like you don’t have it.”

  5

  The Present

  Mechcharga

  There wasn’t a reservoir of information on Nal Liboa that Standish could rely on. If all the information that had been collected on the character before he was brought to Mechcharga by the ladies in waiting were trustworthy, then he wouldn’t have been the rogue he turned out to be. Standish would have to figure out pieces of that information she could trust, and which parts were erroneous.

  Scanning the file, Standish knew that there were two facts that she could rely on; Nal Liboa’s species, and the ship he left the planet in. The second fact was the lead she’d follow.

  “Computer, run a search in all available databases on the ship Varas.”

  Picking up her glass, she downed the rest of the liquid in a single gulp, got up,
and walked over to her bed. It would take hours to scan for the ship, which would only be traceable if Liboa registered it at an Etelainen controlled port. The odds weren’t good, but it was what she had to go on.

  Reaching her bed, she ordered another whisky and sat down on the mattress. Rubbing her eyes, she looked over the room for a moment, then tilted her head back and looked at the ceiling. Her body ached. The war had taken its toll on her. Scars, both physical and mental, left her with trouble sleeping. There was also the voice in the back of her mind that kept telling her that she wasn’t as combat capable as she used to be. If this mission, this final mission, got loud, she might require everything that she had learned in her years of service to get the job done.

  6

  The Past

  Bern 36

  “Sit.” Instructor Vexer said in his usual dry tone.

  In the time since Standish had arrived on Bern 36, and she had transformed from a simple girl from Nadolo Prime to a well-disciplined trainee in the Imperial Fleet.

  Standish did as she was told and took the only chair in the room in front of Vexer’s fleet issued desk. She liked to think that Vexer liked her more than Senior Instructor Marvax, but she wasn’t sure. It was the last evaluation before the final training exercise, and while Standish knew her ranking within her block of seventy-five recruits, she didn’t know how she stacked up against the other two blocks of recruits in the course.

  “The Senior Instructor Marvex thinks that you have shown some progress since starting the course.” Vexer said. “And I agree. You came here full of fire and vigour, and after a few setbacks and failures, you have really come up in the course rankings, and gained a mastery of almost everything that you’ve been taught.” He looked up from his file and locked eyes with Standish. “You’re still reckless and impulsive.”